During the original mid-'60s bossa nova craze, Brazilian Portuguese was the lingua franca. Despite being understood worldwide by a fifth as many people as English, the native tongue was part of the mystique, as with Swedish cinema. Four decades later, English pop star Sting writes and sings a lovely bossa nova in—no, still not English, but French! The good news is that the Harmon mute has made it into the new millennium. Chris Botti, the most angelic-looking trumpeter since a young Chet Baker, is such a divine Harmon-izer that the mute's sleepless 19th-century inventor, John F. Stratton, may at last rest in peace.